Welcome to the Palindrome
Working with Bridget Jones on Hadrian Bridge, Newcastle University campus (next to the Robinson Library, behind the Great North Museum) Linda has created a palindrome poem for this enclosed linear space. 26 enamel panels are printed with a stylised floral design, overlaid with stencil lettering bringing the outside in.
This piece is part of several new public art projects associated with the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts (NCLA). Linda is currently working on a conceptual map for them all with Irene Brown, called Fold.
Click on the image to enlarge.
An Alphabet of Beauty & Cunning
Rockliffe Hall is a major new hotel, spa and golf course in Hurworth-on-Tees, next to Middlesbrough F.C.’s training ground. At an early stage in its development Linda was commissioned to work with the architects, designers and fellow artists Colin Wilbourn and Alec Peever to create a theme to reflect the history of the building. An Alphabet of Beauty and Cunning was inspired by the landscaping scheme of the original owner, in 1888, ‘famous for its wooded beauties and the cunning of its arrangement’. Throughout the house and grounds there are various pieces cast in bronze and carved in slate.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Writing in Three Dimensions
Urbanwords recently commissioned Linda to write an article on the difference between writing for the page and writing for a public space. You can read Writing in Three Dimensions here. She is currently working with Urbanwords director Sarah Butler on a NAWE web resource for writers interested in this field. Details will be posted when it is up and running.
Linda will also be teaching her short course in the subject - 3D Poetry: Text as Public Art - part of Newcastle University’s Creative Writing programme.
Six weekly sessions from Thursday 22nd April 5–7pm.
Phone Melanie Birch for details on 0191 222 7619.
book of days
Linda’s year renga – book of days – apparently the world’s first, is published by Smokestack Books.
According to Bulgarian poet Kristin Dimitrova:
"Linda's book is perfection itself. I read it in quarterly instalments (or seasons, more or less) because to rush it would have meant to waste it. And somehow Linda managed to give me a hint, a paradox, an impression, a straightforward story or a taste of every single day she spent in 2006, and she did it just in three or two lines. Of course, somewhere between January and February I took a peep at May 19 to see what was there for my birthday. So I confess, I used it as a Chinese fortune cookie as well."
Each month is introduced by one of Sue Dunne’s delicate ceramic reliefs cast from the flora of the Northumbrian countryside. Sue has also made a series of 12 framed pieces incorporating a single ceramic fragment accompanied by a verse from that month. A perfect gift, these are available from her studio at Ochrelands, Hexham.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Buy book of days from Inpress (Smokestack Books).
Flying
Kim Lewis’s distinctive wood engravings evoke the feathered world of a selection of Linda’s poems about birds. Currently on display at Kim’s studio at the Hearth, Horsley, they will form an exhibition for Hexham Book Festival, where Linda will launch her new collection, You are Her.
Queen’s Hall, Hexham, 24st April – 22nd May.
Linda and Kim recently won a VARC Award to work together on a collaboration taking a fresh look at the Song of Songs, re-imagining it set in the North Tyne.
Click on the image to enlarge.
From Ariel to The Zoo Father
The Poetry Room, a poetry book reading group at Blackwell’s Bookshop in Newcastle, hosted by Linda and Anna Woodford, continues to go from strength to strength. It is a space for close reading and discussion of a new collection of poems every month – on the last Tuesday, 6.30–8 pm. See www.poetrybookgroup.com for more details.
